Scientists Teleport Light Over 6 Kms; Future Of Internet

Canadian scientists have demonstrated how the quantum internet could one day work by teleporting a light particle over a distance of 6km within the city of CalgaryRiley Brandt, University of Calgary

Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada successfully teleported a photon over a distance of 6 kilometres. This is a new record. Essentially this involves transferring a quantum particle by teleportation using a fibre optic infrastructure. Professor Wolfgang Tittel explains, “Such a network will enable secure communication without having to worry about eavesdropping, & allow distant quantum computers to connect.”

The experiment is based on the entanglement property of quantum mechanics, aka “spooky action at a distance” – a property so mysterious that not even Albert Einstein could explain it. Tittel said, “Being entangled means that the two photons that form an entangled pair have properties that are linked regardless of how far the two are separated.”

A pair of entangled photons (Tony Melov / UNSW)

Quantum entanglement is the process where seemingly counterintuitive matter instantly affects each each other, for example, the measurement of one particle on Earth instantly affecting another particle at the opposite end of the universe.

This experiment was made possible due to a technology called dark fibre, which is a single optical cable that has no electronics or network equipment on the alignment. Dark fibre is typically network infrastructure that is not in use because there is already more than enough data capacity on the network.

To understand more about quantum entanglement, check out this video below:

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Future of Internet:

The demonstration of teleporting light particles is both a key way to demonstrate quantum mechanics, and the researchers see it as yet another step towards making quantum internet a reality.

There is currently a great deal of interest in developing super-fast internet networks whereby data is stored in light particles rather than chips or bits by manipulating light into optical networking, however the technology is currently very complicated.